Want to know where you're going? It might help to look over your past for the clues. When you want to get a better sense of your life purpose or the direction for you to focus on, observing the themes and patterns of your life can give you clues. What are your talents? What are the things that people have always come to you for? Who have you attracted into your life? What flows easily in your life?Make a list and draw a few pictures to represent the answers to these questions. The list accesses your left brain. The pictures gain access to your creative and intuitive right brain. Both are important to your knowing. Your purpose, the reason you are here now comes from deep within you. When you are moving forward in the right direction, you might notice that as a feeling. A sense that this is right. Or you might see cues along the way, a coincidence, an unexpected gift of some kind that affirms your choice. It might just be something that resonates within you that tells you this is the path to choose.The decision doesn't have to be a big one. You don't have to know how it will all work out. You simply have to take another step in the direction that your purpose leads. You simply have to focus on how to best use that talent, to apply that lesson from your challenges, to give to the world the blessing that you are.The first time that I knew that I was on my right path, I was still a child. I had been very worried about a classmate who was injured at a game in school. From my child's mind I could only do what I had been taught to do when I was worried. I prayed. I prayed very hard and I prayed for a long time. A short while later I was out walking in the woods. I came across a steep wooded hillside that was covered in beautiful Virginia Bluebells. All in bloom. I had never experienced this before. I understood at that moment that this vision of wild flowers and the beauty they contained was an affirmation that my prayers were heard. Not coincidence but gift. A moment that had meaning for me from my child knowing and my expereinces of the world. That field of bluebells might have spoken a different message to someone else, but to me they were the reassuring voice of God.What message are you receiving todaY

It might be easy to confuse what "allowing" really means. There's lots of different ideas here. Some people think that allowing means to passively wait for something to happen. Some people send a wish out to the universe and hope that somehow circumstances will change and they will magically receive their wish. I wish I had a Fairy Godmother too but that is not how the universe works. The last time I wished for a five pounds of weight loss, my Fairy Godmother must have been on vacation! Waiting for someting to happen is the equivalent of being asleep. Nothing gets done.

Allowing can be compared to mowing your lawn or planting a garden. To keep your yard neat, you have to put some effort into it. But mowing the grass doesn't stop it from growing. Even if you don't pay much attention to your flowers they still bloom. There is a natural cycle of things. These cycles occur whether we are awre of them or not.

Your ideas evolve in a similar way. An idea may pop into your awareness. You may even spend a little time thinking about how that idea is useful or how it might work out. Or you might imagine what it would feel like to have that idea blossom into fruition. But without mowing, and nurturing, without taking action, your idea will be strangled by the weeds of distraction.

So let's carry the metaphor through for your success. An idea requires mowing: refining it into a specific goal or outcome. This gives you a clear direction upon which to focus.

An idea requires nurturing: specific, targeted actions that bring your idea to full bloom. Allowing means to step into the natural cycle of how things work out and to fully participate in your thoughts, beliefs, and actions.

Are you ready to make those goals for your New Year? If you've evaluated what you don't want and listed what you do want, let's make those goals statements! Before you write down your goals, consider: your goal has to be personal. It won't work to write out a vague statement or one that is too broad. Make your goal statement one that is personal and specific to you and the you you want to become.A goal has to be an outcome, something that when you've achieved it will leave no doubt in your mind that you have done so. Think about that for a moment: How will you know that you have acheived your goal? What will that do for you or how will you be different? Include that in your goal statement.And finally, your goal has to be something you can achieve. Now anything is possible, that's not what I mean. You can only achieve what you believe is possible. So do you believe this goal is acheivable? If not, rewrite it. Do you believe you deserve it? If not, set a different goal, one that involves changing your sense of worthiness. I know you deserve whatever you dream of, but do you? Sometimes you'll need a smaller goal at first until you train your brain to accept even greater possibilities. Don't give up on your goal, just understand that there may be stair steps to get to it.So now, write your goals down. Make them personal and specific, measurable, and achievable. Once you've got them on paper, write several copies and put them everywhere: your bathroom mirror, your nightstand, the dash of your car, the door of the refirgerator, the screen of your computer, in your daily planner. Post them anywhere you spend more than a few minutes. You want your brain to see them them multiple times a day. Once you start reading them several times a day, your brain naturally begins to look for ways to achieve them. And your beliefs begin to align with your desired goal. That's it! You've done it: Awesome goals for your New Year! Go For It!

It's that time of year when we look back on where we've been. We measure our own progress towards the goals we want to achieve. Or maybe we didn't have a goal, or it was too vague to measure. We just know that we want to make some change in the coming months or year. Part of this process is looking at what we don't want. What are you movig away from? Do you want to lose weight this year? Why? What don't you like about your current weight? Do you want to stop smoking this year? Why? What is it that smoking has done to your health? Maybe it's another life change that you want to make: a healthy relationship, more satisfying work, to fulfill adream. No matter. As you look back at the past year what is it that you want to let go of? To truly move forward with a goal, we must know where we've been and what we want to move away from. Only then can we begin to form a clear picture of what we want to create in our future. What we truly want for ourselves. When we know what we don't want it is easier to define what we do want. The list of negatives can easily be transferred to a list of positives. By defining what hasn't worked for you you can eliminate many distractions. You can focus on the path that leads you to success.

Mary Beth Lodge

Life Coach, Hypnotist, Alternative Health Consultant, assisting others to improve their lives and their health. Life coaching in areas of weight loss and smoking cessation, health and wellness, financial freedom, business relationships.